The Knight in Distress
by fan.queen0416
Summary: Percy comforts Hermione after her fiancé dies. She leaves, and comes back to save a knight in distress, very much changed.
1. Prologue

**THE KNIGHT IN DISTRESS: CHAPTER 1**

 _ **Thanks all, for clicking on my story. Leave a review, but be kind! I've only just started writing FF, so I'm a little rusty. Not to mention, this is completely unbeta'd.**_

 _ **~THE FAN QUEEN**_

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As I sat on the bank, sobbing, I was thinking, "Why him, why him? Why myfiancé? Why not Fred, or George, or…' "Percy?" The third Weasley sibling sat down next to me.

"Yeah?"

His voice was rough. All the smoke and dust floating around Hogwarts was getting to our lungs.

"H-how are you?" I didn't want to be impolite, but I really didn't want to talk to anyone.

"Shouldn't Ibe the one asking youthat? It was yourfiancé who died after all."

"Yeah, and your brother."

I knew my responses were short, but I honestly did notcare. I mean, can you really blame me? My fiancé had died in The Battle of Hogwarts not one month ago. Not one month ago I had been kissing him in the Chamber of Secrets and now he was dead.

"Still, how are you?"

The concern in Percy's voice was evident. Maybe he wasn't just acting as a messenger for the Weasley family.

I laughed, drily. "I've been better. What about you? And how are Molly and Harry holding up?"

"I'm okay. Been busy with work and rebuilding Hogwarts. Harry's acting okay. He surely isn't, inside, but he's been putting on a brave face. He blames himself for Ron's death, and Tonks', and Remus's, and everyone else's as well. Nothing new there, though. Molly hasn't come out of the kitchen since the day after the Battle. She's coping how she knows how to, cooking and baking."

"Yeah, that sounds like Molly. I should go and talk to Harry, see if I can comfort him at all." I made to get up, but Percy's hand on my arm pulled me back down.

"Wait, stay. How are you, really? And none of that 'I've been better' stuff now. None of us have been 'better' since before the war. I care, I want to know how you're doing, truly."

Wow. More and more, Percy was surprising me with his gentleness.

"I-I, it's hard. I don't know what to do! Ron was always there for me, Percy. Always! Even when we were arguing, he was still in my life. Now, he's just gone. Just like that! When that green curse hit him, all the life was gone out of him. He was just a body. I don't know what to do. We were going to win the war, have a summer wedding, buy a house, and go back to Hogwarts for our NEWT year, one last hurrah with Harry before I go into the Department of International Magical Cooperation and Ron the Department of Magical Games and Sports and Harry the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I'm lost right now."

By the end of my rant I'm shaking, my eyes welling up with salty tears. Percy was being amazing, his shirt was soaked and he was still holding me in his arms, petting my hair and humming a lullaby.

"Let it out, let it out. I've got you. No one else is gonna die, and I'll help you figure your life out, okay?"

"O-okay?" It came out more like a question than a statement, but I was grateful.

"First thing's first. Do you still want to go back to Hogwarts?"

"No, I don't think so. I can barely stand it now, surrounded by all of you, to be back here. This place will forever be a part of me, but it's not my life now."

"Okay, what about Ilvermorny? Going to America, you could start over. Find yourself again, or even reinvent yourself. And if you still want to do the DIMC you can, they have that all over the wizarding world."

"I don't know. I don't want to leave everyone behind. I would miss you all too much."

"Hermione. You're a witch. You've learned how to apparate, correct?"

At my nod, he continued.

"Just apply for an international apparating license so you can pop back over whenever, not to mention Floo calls. The Ministry will do anything for you, you saved the whole bloody wizarding world! Besides, I'm the head of the Department of Magical Transportation, remember?"

"Right, of course! International apparition and I can come back whenever I feel like it. Thank you, Percy. So much. I really appreciate it. I'm so used to being the cool, logical one, I forget other people know how to use their head as well."

Percy chuckled. "Yes, my brother could be a bit thick, couldn't he?"

"Do you, do you think you could help me get a license and sign up for Ilvermorny? I've never had to deal with the Ministry much before, legally that is."

"Yes, certainly. Why don't we go on Monday? We can take the whole day off and go out for lunch. I think we deserve a break, don't you?"

And with that, Percy has officially became my favorite Weasley.

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Come Monday, Percy and I apparated straight from the Burrow to the Ministry. Unlike other Ministry workers or visitors, we did not have to use the toilet or phone booth. As head of the Department of Magical Transportation, Percy was keyed into the apparition wards. Yet another bonus was that we could completely bypass the waiting lines and go straight to his office. Upon entering, Percy was in his element.

He grabbed a parchment with a form on it, presumably for my license, and indicated a cushy green chair with a tea tray next to it.

"I'll fill this basic information out for you, I think I know it all. You can take a seat and help yourself to tea and biscuits. Courtesy of Molly."

"You know my birthdate, and my middle name?"

I asked this incredulously, not even Harry and Ron knew the year I was born or my middle name. They forgot my birthday too some years.

"Yes, I do. I pay attention, unlike the two idiots you unfortunately had to spend seven years with."

It was a sign that I was accepting that Ron was gone, and that Percy was helping me, that I didn't even say anything about him calling my ex-fiancé an idiot.

"Okay, the form is mostly filled out, do you have any medical conditions we should be aware of?"

"Uh, just seasonal allergies. Otherwise, no."

"Okay, then I just need your signature here and your wand signature here."

He indicated where on the parchment. I signed my name on the line, but I did not know what to do for my wand signature. (Yes, it is possible that the great Hermione Granger doesn't know something.)

"Percy? What's a wand signature? And how do I give it to you?"

"Right. Just take your wand and hold it to the parchment in the circle until glows white. That registers your magic so when you apparate in and out of countries, we get an alert and can check that you have a license."

I did as requested and handed the form back to Percy, still amazed by how much he has to know as the head of the Transportation Department.

"That's done, you could apparate to Brazil if you wanted to right now. But let's go get you registered for Ilvermorny before we do anything else. That will be the Department of International Magical Cooperation, seeing as you want to transfer internationally."

He grabbed my hand and apparated us directly to the next office. Yet another perk of being a Ministry official, I suppose. The registration process was very simple. Another form to fill out, signatures, a different form stating where I wanted to transfer, what level, and for how long, and the signatures again. I also elected to receive American citizenship, which would give me more freedom than a transfer or exchange student, and would be easier after school.

We apparated back home to the Burrow after eating lunch in Muggle London. Everyone had questions as to where we were and why we were gone so long together, (those came from Fred and George, along with a wiggle of the eyebrows) to which I merely answered that I had some paperwork to fill out and Percy was helping me, and left it at that.

I decided to break it to everyone after the work at Hogwarts was complete, in order to give myself some time to relax.

My last thought before going to sleep was, 'Thank Merlin for Percy.'

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	2. Chapter 2

_I know, I know, please don't throw things. I've been gone so long,I'm sorry. But here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy._

 _~Fan Queen_

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CRACK! I landed in front of the Burrow loudly. It was different, I could tell, even from the outside. It was wider now, with a more solid foundation. A lot more rooms had been added. I took a moment to steel myself, this would be the first time seeing any of the Weasleys (or Harry) since five years ago. I was a little nervous, understandably.

Knock, knock! Mrs. Weasley opened the door with a huge grin on her face. She was the only one who knew that I was coming back, I had wanted to surprise the others.

"Come in, my dear, you're just in time for lunch! The others will be so excited to see you!"

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley, I'm excited to see them too."

"Now, none of this 'Mrs' business. It's Molly to you, "Mrs" makes me feel old."

"Of course, Molly."

As we had been speaking, Molly ushered me into the entrance way, where I stood for a second. The Burrow had changed a lot from the inside, as well. The walls were repainted, and there was an actual entrance hallway now, with other corridors splitting off to the bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, and the basement. Yes, the Burrow had a basement now, apparently.

Molly led me into the eating area, where Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ginny, and Harry were gathered.

Harry stood up, knocking his chair over in the process, staring at me.

"Hermione, is that you?!"

"Yeah, yeah it's me. Surprise!"

At that, everyone received some silent cue to jump up from their seats and pile on top of me in one massive, group hug.

"Guys, I can't breathe, I think you've like, permanently crushed my lungs. Would you maybe consider letting go now?" I pleaded with them after at least five minutes of enduring a full-Weasley group hug. "I've missed you too, but I'll miss my lungs more if you kill them."

"Where the hell have you been? What are you doing here? We haven't heard from you for five years, since you left for Ilvermorny and America, and then you just show up here, all of a sudden? We've missed you so much, where have you been?"

"Not 20 Questions, Harry," I laughed. He was still so over-exuberant.

"Sorry, I've just missed you so much. Do you want to eat and catch all of us up during lunch?"

"Yeah, lunch would be great, I'm famished."

Right on cure, Molly came back through the door with the rest of the food, Mr. Weasley right behind her with a huge pitcher of lemonade.

"Everyone, sit, let's eat and enjoy each other's company. I've worked all morning on this food."

"First of all, 'Mione, why do you look so different?" It seems Harry was a bit more observant now, I thought to myself dryly. It was true, my appearance had changed a lot.

"Right, well, that can kind of only be explained along with the rest of my story, so do you want me to go first?" No one disagreed, so I took a big gulp of homemade lemonade and prepared to relive my last five years.

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"So you all know that Percy helped me transfer to Ilvermorny and everything, right? And I finished out my schooling there, it took one year. After that, I traveled around America a bit, I still didn't know what I wanted to do. Before I had planned to work in the Department of International Magic Cooperation, but a boring desk job didn't hold the same appeal for me anymore.

I lived all across the country, but eventually I settled in NYC, where I made some good friends. I had lived there for about a year when my roommate was kidnapped and raped. She was returned, alive but badly traumatized, and the kidnapper had escaped. The American Auror force wasn't doing that much, they had just gotten a huge case and didn't have anyone to spare, so I started searching for trails myself. I managed to track him down, capture him, and turn him in to the Aurors.

Then I realized that I really liked that, working for myself, but I also liked hunting down criminals and turning them in. The Aurors invited me to join their service, but I declined and they told me about a sort of Wizard Bounty Hunter. There is a section of the DMLE which is made up of witches and wizards who work individually to capture criminals and turn them in, for a bounty. Even if the DMLE wasn't aware of the criminal or offense when you brought them in, you could testify under Veritaserum and the criminal would be interrogated under Veritaserum as well.

So for the next year, I trained myself mentally, physically, and magically to be as strong as possible. I also changed my appearance, as you can tell. Long hair just got in the way, so I cut it, and decided to have some fun at the same time. And as for my clothes, they're easy to move in, but they're also armour. You can't tell, but the clothes are made out of scales that I invented; they are similar to dragon wings in that they are resistant to virtually all types of magic, and protect me from the elements, but are also very flexible, obviously.

I did that in America for three years, and was pretty well off, but I decided that I had been away for long enough and that I missed home. So here I am, and here I'll stay."

"Wow, Mione, I can't believe you did all that, accomplished all that. Actually, I can, who am I kidding, it's Hermione Granger, brightest witch of her age! She can do anything!"

"Aw, Harry. Anyway, how have you been?"

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 _Please leave a review, I love it when you do that. Constructive criticism is always helpful and appreciated. Question, would you guys like a side-fic about Hermione's five years in America? If so, please tell me in the comments._

 _~Fan Queen_


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